Radawnica: church of St. Barbara

The industrial revolution which flourished in the 19th century was characterised by an abrupt technological development. However, in the aesthetic and artistic areas there appeared a romantic turn to past. Old stylistic trends were exploited and reinterpreted. Gothic style was especially appreciated. The furnishings of the church of St. Barbara in Radawnica from the second half of the 19th century was made in the Neogothic style. The reference to Gothic period came form emotional and aesthetic grounds: people looked for spirituality and mysticism in art, which was so characteristic for Middle Ages. Neogothic style was characterised by freedom in the use of the resource of Gothic forms connected with antique and even oriental motifs.

Gothic style was imitated by the use of pointed arches, towering pinnacles, i.e. decorations which surmounted altars with ornamental floral motifs.

In the lower part of the altar a half-bodied, realistic bas-relief of the Last Supper was placed. The motif is also characteristic for Neogothic style – it marks out by the domination of realistic figural sculptures, which often pop up in Catholic and Protestant churches.

Procedures of the refining of altar materials are characteristic for this period. Among others, so called graining was used in order to imitate growth rings of timber, e.g. oak, and increase the value of pinewood which the altar was made of.

The pulpit was a place where sermons were given from (in the mother tongue, whereas the holy mass was in Latin) and liturgic texts were read. It was put high on a wall or a pillar of the first arch of the main nave so that the voice of the priest reached the farthest corners of the church.

The pulpit consists of a corpus and stairs. The corpus includes: a podium with a sill, a backrest and a canopy which is decorated with a dove on the roof and crowned by a statue of Christ.

The basket of the pulpit is decorated with bas-reliefs of the Evangelists’ and their attributes’ images (Mark with a lion, Matthew with a man, Luke with an ox and John with an eagle).

The animals which the Evangelists are shown with, are symbols of Christ: „As man he suffered, as lion he conquered, as eagle he ascended, as ox was sacrificed”.